CN101843124A - Negotiation of short-range wireless communication parameters using configuration data received via RFID - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided: the method and apparatus are used to automatically couple two or more mobile communication devices (502, 541) to share content such as calls, music, files, videos, and games, where the two or more devices automatically determine the feasibility of sharing content and negotiate to find an efficient way to do so. In this way, pairing between devices may be transparent to the user. Also, a better choice in the transfer may be selected without user input. Each device may include a Near Field Communication (NFC) device that may automatically initiate pairing between the devices when in range of the other device so that the devices may share content. Users of NFC-enabled devices may have little or minimal interaction, except that one or more users may bring the devices within range so that NFC may initiate pairing between the devices.

Description

Negotiation of short-range wireless communication parameters using configuration data received via RFID

technical field

Disclosed are methods and devices for automatically coupling two or more local mobile communication devices to share content such as digital calls, music, video, files and games.

Background technique

Digital media content such as pictures, music, documents and videos have become an integral part of people's daily lives. Due to the rapid development and widespread deployment of wireless networks and wireless products, content sharing over wireless networks may become an effective way of distributing media content. However, sharing and distribution is still not user friendly.

Three-way calling in a communication device shares a voice call between three parties. However, the steps for initiating a three-way call are tedious and complicated. When a calling party is engaged in a two-way conversation using a cellular communication device, he or she may wish to invite a third party to join the communication. The calling party can press the three-way talk button on the device and enter the third party's phone number. Then, put the second party on hold. After establishing the connection with the third party, the calling party can press the three party button again to link the second party back to the communication. Typically, a device with two existing call connections cannot initiate or accept another call with a fourth party expanding the three-way communication into a four-way communication. Also, service charges are required for three-way calls in the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Therefore, a caller who initiates a three-way call will be charged for both connections. Three-way PSTN calling schemes may not be used very often due to cost and complexity.

An alternative technique to the above-mentioned three-party call technique may include: the caller on the existing two-way call establishes a point-to-point Bluetooth connection in addition to the PSTN call. However, there are multiple manual steps that the calling party and third party may need to perform to pair the two devices to share the call. Again, users may not use a point-to-point Bluetooth connection to add a third party to two-way communication due to the complexity.

Mobile communication device users want more than just shared voice calls. While establishing a point-to-point Bluetooth connection allows users to share some of the aforementioned content such as calls, pictures, music, files, and videos, most users find the Bluetooth pairing process complicated and annoying, and the transfer of content difficult.

Contents of the invention

Description of drawings

Figure 1 depicts a mobile communication device comprising a near field communication (NFC) device and at least one short-range transceiver according to an embodiment;

2 depicts a "tap to configure" example comprising a first device, a second device and a third device, and the first device has voice communication over a cellular network;

3 is a high-level timing diagram illustrating a sequence of events for "tap to configure" between a first device and a second device, according to an embodiment;

4 is a high-level diagram of different possible components of a wireless communication device's configuration information, available bandwidth, and application types that a wireless communication device can send to another wireless communication device via its NFC device;

5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a Bluetooth connection using virtual link keys and NFC information of two devices according to an embodiment;

Figure 6 depicts an example of call sharing between co-located devices;

Figure 7 depicts an arrangement in which three devices can share three calls thus having 6-way communication.

Figure 8 depicts a high-level example of a synchronization mechanism state machine according to an embodiment;

9 illustrates an example of a peer-to-peer state machine (P2PSM) that can run on a specific device that is customized to the media types and transports supported by the device;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a point-to-point state machine (P2PSM) that can run on a specific device customized for its supported media types and transmissions;

Figure 11 depicts an example of a general configuration data format for information exchange for NFC transmission between two devices according to an embodiment;

Figure 12 illustrates the format of the output memory for the state information of Figure 11;

Figure 13 is a specific example of Figure 11, where T1 = Bluetooth and T2 = WiFi;

Figure 14 is a table specifying the format of the combined "BT", "BT Configuration Length" and "BT Configuration" fields of Figure 13;

Figure 15 is a table specifying the format of the combined "Wla", "WiFi Configuration Length" and "WiFi Configuration" fields shown in Figure 13; and

FIG. 16 is a table specifying the format of the combined 'St', 'Status Information Length', and 'Status Information' fields shown in FIG. 13 .

Detailed ways

Today's wireless devices are typically capable of supporting multiple wireless technologies, such as cellular plus WiFi, Bluetooth, UWB, and the like. Typically, the establishment of short-range wireless connections (such as WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) requires some basic technical knowledge. The average, non-technical consumer typically does not understand the configuration process provided with the product. As a result, wireless transfer of digital content between local devices often occurs over the first available wireless link or at the option of an uninformed user. This wireless link may not be optimal for quality, user experience, power and/or cost savings. For example, the transmission power of Bluetooth Class 2 is 2.5mW (4dBm). It can provide data rates up to 1Mbps and has a coverage range of 10 meters. The transmission power of WiFi 802.11b is 100mW (20dBm). It can support up to 11Mbps in 100 meters. For image and audio sharing, Bluetooth offers better quality of service and consumes less power than other short-range wireless transmissions. Although WiFi consumes more power, WiFi may be a better choice for video content that requires more bandwidth. However, most users are unaware of the technical differences between Bluetooth and WiFi wireless links, and do not know which type of wireless link is most suitable for a particular situation.

Methods and devices are described for automatically coupling two or more mobile communication devices using a short-range wireless link to share content such as calls, music, video, files, and games, wherein the two or more devices automatically determine the shared availability of the content, and negotiate to find an efficient way to share the content. In this way, short distance establishment and content transfer between devices can be transparent to the user. Also, better delivery options can be selected without requiring user input.

As described in more detail below, when the first user's device application is active, at least the first user's device and the second user's device are substantially automatically configured to share a wireless communication link corresponding to the first device over a short-range wireless communication link. Effectively applied content. Active applications of the first device may be, for example, voice calls, music playback, file, video or photo image display. Configuration information stored in memory, such as RAM, is used to configure the short-range wireless transceiver for transmission. Each device includes a near field communication (NFC) device that, when in range, initiates communication between the devices so that the devices can share content. NFC is used to transfer configuration information so that two short-range transceivers of different devices establish compatible transfer configurations.

For example, there are different modes of Bluetooth depending on the functionality of the communication device. Therefore, a particular mode of Bluetooth cannot communicate with another mode of Bluetooth running on another device. Thus, configuration information conveys the transport configuration to facilitate compatibility. By automatically determining a compatible configuration of transfers as described, users of NFC-enabled devices may have limited or minimal personal interaction—just enough so that one or more users can bring the device within range so that the NFC device can activate communication. In one embodiment, users can "tap to configure" their device for content sharing. Thus, the need for a complicated and tedious process of sharing content can be eliminated.

As described in more detail below, the mobile communication device includes an NFC device and at least one short-range transceiver such as a Bluetooth transceiver or a WiFi transceiver. The NFC device may be configured to: transmit parameters such as configuration information and available bandwidth to the short-range wireless transceiver; transmit application type information; and receive configuration information, available bandwidth and application type information of another device. After the NFC device has sent and received such information, the processor determines the configuration needed (and possibly most suitable) for sending or receiving digital content with the appropriate bandwidth. A short-range transceiver of a mobile communication device having a wireless transmission configuration set according to the determined configuration information and also having an available bandwidth can transmit data suitable for a valid application type previously transmitted via NFC, such as digital content. The application type information includes a maximum value of an application indicator indicating the highest priority application software program running on the processor.

As a result of the interaction between the two devices and their respective NFC devices, an application that is active on the first device can be opened, and that application is active on the second device, so that the Data received from the first device can be accessed by a user of the second device. In this manner, users of NFC-enabled devices may have limited or minimal interaction to share content. One or more users bring the devices into range so that NFC can initiate establishing short-range communication between the devices; and, determining the appropriate transfers, applications and digital content without each user having to manually Build delivery and select content applications seamlessly. Accordingly, the need for a complicated and tedious process of setting up two or more devices to share content can be eliminated.

Advantageously, the configuration process described above can be used to configure multiple devices. For example, the method may include implementing a point-to-multipoint (P2M) connection, wherein a first wireless device has a short-range wireless point-to-point (P2P) connection with a second wireless communication device and a wireless communication device with a third wireless communication device. At least one other short-range wireless P2P connection. Thus, more than two devices can share content such as calls, music, video, files and games.

Figure 1 depicts a mobile communication device 102 comprising a near field communication (NFC) device 104, such as an RFID tag, and at least one short-range transceiver 106, 108, and 110, according to an embodiment. The mobile communication device 102 can be implemented as a cellular telephone (also referred to as a mobile station or user equipment) as shown, or as a laptop or notebook computer with a communication modem, a messaging device, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, a mobile communication Apparatus 102 may include, for example, a cellular antenna 112 and a corresponding cellular transceiver 114 . A cellular transceiver may support, for example, voice communications, the ability to transfer digital data, SMS messaging, Internet access, multimedia content access, and/or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

User interface 116 allows a user to access content for applications running on device 102 . User interface 116 may include display 103 and keypad 105 . Speaker 107 and microphone 109 may be part of user interface 116 for voice calls, speech recognition applications, and for other audio applications. It is understood that any type of user interface 116 is within the scope of this discussion.

Device 102 includes a near field communication (NFC) device 104 that (when within range of another NFC-enabled device) can initiate a compatible configuration between two mobile communication devices so that the devices can share content. As mentioned above, RFID is an example of an NFC device. Two mobile communication devices, each with a compatible NFC device, can quickly transfer small amounts of information between them when in range. As described below, the minimum amount of information allows two devices to be compatibly configured so that they can share content wirelessly over short distances.

In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1 , at least one NFC device 104 is in communication with a controller 117 , which in turn may be in communication with a processor 120 . For example, processor 120 may be a real-time voice processor for voice call sharing. A real-time speech processor 120 may be used because speech processing may be performed at the application layer in a different manner than a music player. It will be appreciated that processor 120 may be used for any suitable purpose.

As described above, NFC device 104 sends short-range transceiver configuration information 122 , available bandwidth 124 for each transmission configuration, and valid application type information 126 . Configuration information, available bandwidth, and application type information of another communication device may also be received from the NFC device of the other communication device. If the controller 117 can match the transfer configuration, corresponding bandwidth, and application type to determine that the two devices can share content wirelessly, the two devices can implement state machines in parallel, as described below. If the parallel state machine each infers that content can be transferred wirelessly between the two devices, the controller 117 initiates communication between the two devices via the selected short-range transceiver. As previously mentioned, the mobile communication device 102 comprises at least one short-range transceiver 106, which may for example be of the Bluetooth or WiFi type. Additional short-range transceivers 108 and 110 may provide more transmission options between two or more devices. Of course, the short-range transceivers may be of any suitable type.

The mobile communication device 102 also includes a memory 128 and a module 130 that performs certain procedures of the methods described herein. Modules may include, for example: a Bluetooth available bandwidth module 164 and a WiFi available bandwidth module 168 that track bandwidth utilization for each transfer by the device 102; 135, music module 137 and/or video module 139. Steps of methods may refer to modules, and other modules (not discussed here) may be inferred from the methods described herein. The modules may be implemented in software, such as in the form of one or more sets of pre-stored instructions, and/or in hardware. The modules may be installed at the factory, or may be installed after distribution, for example by a download operation. The operation of the device according to the modules will be discussed in more detail below.

Software applications 132 may be stored in memory 128, such as ROM, and may include, for example, calling applications, imaging applications, audio applications, video applications, word processing applications, and other applications. It is understood that any content processing application is within the scope of this discussion. One or more types of content processing applications may be executed by the controller 117 . The short-range transceiver software stack 134 includes: a WiFi stack, which will be installed on the WiFi transceiver 106; a Bluetooth stack, which will be installed on the Bluetooth transceiver 108; and/or other short-range wireless communication software stacks, which can installed on another type of transceiver 110. In other implementations, software stack 134 may have a different memory structure. For example, shared memory 138 may be the same as or a subset of memory 128 , or may be separate from memory 128 . Software stack 134 and applications 132 can be stored in memory 128 and can be updated independently.

Configuration information 136 may be updated when device 102 is powered up or when the transfer configuration has been changed via device monitor 140 , which may be a component of controller 117 . The device monitor 140 tracks information related to the short-range transceivers 106 , 108 , 110 and the applications 132 . This information is recorded as device status information. Application information 132 may be updated when a "tap to configure" action (described below) occurs or when a content share is established. As noted above, communications by the NFC device 104 of configuration information 122 , available bandwidth 124 , and application type information 126 may be accessed via an NFC device 104 transponder link. A list of device records that can store information for NFC communications resides in memory 128 .

When this device 102 receives another device's configuration information, available bandwidth and application type information, this device 102 can find an appropriate configuration for content sharing with another device, call up an appropriate software stack 134, and establish a short-distance wireless connection, The application 132 corresponding to the content to be shared is brought up and sharing of the content via the established short-range transceiver such as 106 , 108 or 110 is initiated.

The synchronization mechanism 118 automatically determines the selection, configuration and setup of the short-range transceiver 106, 108 or 110, automatically selects and configures the corresponding application 132 for content sharing, and automatically synchronizes the sharing process. As noted, device monitor 140 monitors and modifies device state information, including configuration information 136, as device state and/or configuration changes.

FIG. 2 depicts a "tap to configure" example including a first device 202 , a second device 241 and a third device 242 . In this example, the first device 202 is engaged in a two-way voice call with a remote communication device (not shown) via the network 246 . The devices 202, 241 and 242 may each be implemented as the wireless communication device 102 according to Fig. 1 . Network 246 may be any type of wireless network, including ad hoc or wireless personal area networks, WiFi or wireless local area networks, and cellular or wireless wide area networks. Likewise, network 246 may be of any suitable configuration. The description of the network in Figure 2 is simplified for illustrative purposes.

As mentioned above, in addition to voice communications, mobile communication devices may include devices such as still or video cameras, video streaming and two-way video calling, e-mail capabilities, Internet browsers, music players, FM radios with stereo audio, games, text Characteristics of processors and notebooks. The content of feature applications that can run on the mobile communication device includes, for example, voice content types, image content types, audio content types, video content types, and file and text content types. When an application is active on a mobile communication device, content related to the application can be made available to a user of the device. In the example in FIG. 2 , the voice communication is sent to device 202 via network 246 . Using "tap to configure" 243 between device 202 and device 241, a short-range wireless connection between devices 202 and 241 may be established to share voice communication. In the same or another embodiment, a "tap to configure" 244 between device 202 and device 242 establishes a connection between devices 202 and 242 that is substantially transparent to the user.

Using "tap to configure" 243, NFC device 104 (see FIG. 1 ) of mobile communication device 202 sends short-range transceiver 106, 108 and 110 parameters, such as configuration information 122 and available bandwidth 124, to second device 241, plus The application type information 126 is uploaded, and the configuration information 122, the available bandwidth 124 and the application type information 126 of the second device are received. In addition, using the "tap to configure" 244 action, the NFC device 104 of the mobile communication device 202 can send the configuration information 122, the available bandwidth 124 and the application type 126 to the third device 242, and receive the third device's configuration information, available Bandwidth and application type information. It will be appreciated that other information and/or parameters may be exchanged during the "tap to configure" action.

The "tap to configure" feature allows a small amount of information to be sent between two NFC devices of two mobile communication devices. Beneficially, users can tap their devices, nearly tap their devices, and/or bring their devices together to a predetermined distance (which may be determined by the configuration of the NFC device) without being required to keep the mobile communication devices together for an extended period of time . For a short time, NFC device 104 (see FIG. 1 ) may provide information to determine the appropriate short-range transfer (via short-range transceivers 106, 108, and 110) for sending and receiving digital content from one device to another. . The transmission may eg be Bluetooth, WiFi and/or another transmission. The available bandwidth of a transfer may be a determining factor in choosing a particular transfer.

When a voice call with a remote device (not shown) occurs as an active application on mobile communication device 202, a voice call sharing application software program can be selected and configured on both devices, such as 202 and 241, to share the voice content Transmitting from the first wireless communication device to the second wireless communication device over the short-range wireless communication link to create a three-way call. Thus, the "tap to configure" feature can simplify the process of connection establishment and content sharing over wireless local connections such as Bluetooth or WiFi. While for this example the first user's application is active in a voice call, the NFC device assists in establishing a compatible short-range wireless transceiver substantially automatically.

A wireless short-range transceiver is established to share content corresponding to active applications of the first device 202 between the first device 202 and the second device 241 . Another software program may be launched on the second device 241 to facilitate voice call sharing. For example, processor 120 (see FIG. 1 ) may be a real-time voice processor for voice call sharing. Real-time voice processors on both devices 202 and 241 can be used, since voice processing can be performed differently at the application layer than a music player. Thus, with the "tap to configure" 243 action, devices 202 and 241 can automatically select and configure corresponding applications of both devices to share content, and the sharing process can be automatically synchronized between participating devices 202, 241 .

FIG. 2 also illustrates the various relationships that multiple devices have with each other when communicating with each other over short distances. The “tap to configure” 244 action on device 242 establishes a second short-range wireless connection between device 202 and device 242 . It is understood that any number of devices may utilize a "tap to configure" action to establish a connection between them, as long as bandwidth is available. In this way, device 202 and devices 241 and 242 are in a "point-to-multipoint" (P2M) configuration. Also, appliances 202 and 241 are in a "peer-to-peer" configuration, as are appliances 202 and 242.

FIG. 3 is a high-level sequence of events illustrating a “tap to configure” between a first device 302 and a second device 341 (equivalent to the first device 202 and the second device 241 shown in FIG. 2 ). timing diagram. The devices may touch or come within range 336 of each other such that their respective NFC devices establish a near field communication link 348 . As noted above, the information transmitted from device 302 and received by device 341 over responder link 348 may include configuration information, available bandwidth, and application type information of the first device. Likewise, information transmitted from device 341 over responder link 349 and received by device 302 may include configuration information, available bandwidth, and application type information for the second device. The NFC device 104 (see FIG. 1 ) can transmit and receive information at, for example, 400 KB/sec. The data format for communication between devices according to their respective NFC devices is discussed in detail below.

4 is a high-level diagram of different possible components of configuration information 422, available connectivity capabilities 424, and application types 426 that a wireless communication device 402 may send to another wireless communication device via its NFC device 104 (see FIG. 1). As described above, the disclosed methods and devices use the sharing of short-range device configuration information, bandwidth availability information, content information, and application information to automatically synchronize shared content between two or more NFC-compatible wireless devices to Provides high-quality short-distance content sharing while saving battery power. In one embodiment, a specific data format is used to encapsulate the information sent by the NFC. It will be appreciated that any suitable data format may be used.

In the case of content sharing between mobile devices such as devices 202 and 241 (see FIG. 2 ), the NFC transmitted data may include, for example, the mobile device's short-range wireless transceiver capabilities, detailed configuration information for each short-range wireless transceiver , the type and detailed configuration information of the application consuming the shared content, and the type, size, pointer and other relevant information of the shared content. The method for content sharing can perform the following functions: automatically record and update NFC-sent information, transfer NFC-sent information between participants, automatically synchronize configuration and settings of short-range wireless connections, automatically select and configure for sharing The corresponding application of the content, and the sharing process is automatically synchronized between the mobile devices. In one embodiment, the general method and device can provide the above-mentioned functions together with high-quality user experience and battery life saving.

Solutions for sharing tasks can be performed transparently to the user or with minimal user interaction. The device record list may store entries of information of NFC communication. As noted above, the list of device records is in memory 128 (see FIG. 1 ). Each entry of the device record list may have a unique device ID and NFC sent information for that device. The unique device ID can be a combination of the Bluetooth device address and the WiFi MAC address, or can be other information that can identify the device. The recorded NFC sent information may include (i) a permanent part and (ii) a variable part. An example of a permanent part of the information sent by NFC is the local connectivity capabilities of the device. An example of a variable part of the information sent by NFC is the device state reflecting the current primary activity such as "voice call" or "play audio".

If no matching device ID is found in the device record list, this may indicate that the particular exchange is the first instance of "tap to configure" between two wireless communication devices. The second device may record the unique device ID and other information, and configure its short-range communication interface (eg, Bluetooth, WiFi, or other connection module 134 (see FIG. 1 )) to be performed by the controller 117 to implement a short-range transceiver. If the second device finds a matching record for the ID of the first device, it may update the variable part of the record upon receipt of the information sent by the peer NFC. When an entry is updated, each device activates its own synchronization mechanism 118 and executes its own peer-to-peer state machine (P2PSM), which includes configuring its short-range wireless interface, establishing a short-range wireless connection with another device, calling Correspond to the state of the device and the application to share the content (application modules for audio or voice calls 133, images 135, music 137, video 139 or other media), and start content sharing.

In this example, configuration information 422 may include Bluetooth configuration 450 having Bluetooth configuration type 451 , Bluetooth device address 452 , device class 453 , link key 454 , and device short name 455 . Also for example, configuration information may include WLAN configuration 456 including information such as WLAN standards (e.g., IEEE standards 802.11a, 802.11b, and/or 802.11g) 457, service set identifier (SSID) 458, connection mode 459, RF channel ID 460 and the encryption type and corresponding encryption key 461 information. Other configuration information 462 may be included as appropriate. The device 402 may provide information related to the connectivity capabilities 424 it has acquired.

For example, if the device is currently substantially using its WiFi receiver, it may have little or no bandwidth available on WiFi transmissions. However, it can get Bluetooth bandwidth. It may send Bluetooth 463-related information to another device via the NFC device 104 (FIG. 1), such as whether any resources are available for one or more Bluetooth transmissions 464, how many connections are already using one or more transmissions 465, and for one or more Bluetooth transmissions 465. How much bandwidth is left 466 for one or more transfers. On the other hand, if device 402 is currently substantially using its Bluetooth transceiver, it may have little or no bandwidth available on Bluetooth transmissions. However, it can get WiFi 467 bandwidth. It can send information to another device via the NFC device 104, such as how much WiFi bandwidth is available for one or more WiFi transmissions 468, how many connections are already using one or more WiFi transmissions 469, and How much bandwidth 470.

Furthermore, device 402 may transmit via NFC device 104 (see FIG. 1 ) application type information 426, which may be, for example, a maximum value of an application indicator indicating the highest priority application software program running on a processor of the device. . If multiple applications or functions are active, the user interface may prompt the user for an option to select. For example, after two phones "tap to configure," a user of one phone can opt-in to an ongoing phone call on the other phone. For example, the application indicator may be a call sharing application indicator 433, an image viewer application indicator 435, an audio player application indicator 437, a video player application indicator 439, or a file and text editing application indicator (not shown) . Furthermore, application type information 426 may include relevant content parameters such as time, type or format and size parameters as part of information flow between devices such as 402 and 241 (see FIG. 2 ) via NFC device 104 .

As described above, more than two devices can establish compatible wireless transfer configurations via a "tap to configure" contact. For example, a point-to-multipoint (P2M) connection may be implemented wherein a first wireless device has a short-range P2P connection with a second wireless communication device and at least one other short-range wireless P2P connection with another wireless communication device.

FIG. 5 is a signal flow diagram illustrating a Bluetooth connection using a virtual link key and NFC information transmitted between the first wireless communication device 502 and the second wireless communication device 541 . Both devices 502, 541 may be implemented as wireless communication device 102 of FIG. 1 . As noted above, processor 120 (see FIG. 1 ) may be a real-time voice processor for voice call sharing. The real-time voice processor 120 is employed in this example because a locally shared voice call requires the ability within the device 502 to be able to simultaneously process voice audio streams from two or more different locations. The device combines inbound audio from multiple channels before sending them to the speakers. The speakers direct the audio (and combined audio) produced by the device to all other participants, including, for example, device 541 and device 242 (see FIG. 2 ). After the short-range wireless communication link is established between 502 and 541, master device 502 can exercise control over enhanced functionality on a client device, such as device 541, such as audio input from client participants. Mute/Mute the audio output to the client participant, and/or disconnect the client.

The NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) specification described below may define a message encapsulation format to exchange information between two NFC Forum devices such as devices 202 and 241 (see FIG. 2 ) or between an NFC Forum device and an NFC Forum Tag . NDEF data can be used to encapsulate one or more application-defined payloads of any type and size into a single message structure. Each payload is described by a type identifier, length and optional identifier. The type identifier may be a URI, a MIME media type or may be an NFC specific type. The payload length is an unsigned integer indicating the number of octets in the payload. The selected payload identifier enables association of multiple payloads and cross-references between them.

In this example, device 502 has an active software application 531 to share with nearby device 541 . In this example, the active software application is a cellular voice call (not shown) with a remote device. As noted above, for example, the active software application may be digital photos, MP3 music playback, or the like. The device 541 is powered up 572 . It is assumed that both devices are NFC Forum compliant. Device 502 "tap to configure" 543 (or approach) device 541 . The device 502 generates a virtual link key Kv 571 and stores it in its NFC shared memory 138 (see FIG. 1 ). The virtual link key Kv is a randomized 128-bit number generated by the communication processor of the master device when touching the two devices. This process may be more secure than using the link key 454 (see FIG. 4 ), because the virtual link key is regenerated each time the two devices come into contact via NFC.

As described above with reference to FIG. 4 , information 548 including configuration information, available bandwidth, and application type information is sent from device 541 and received by device 502 . Likewise, information 549 including configuration information, available bandwidth, and application type information is sent from device 502 and received by device 541 . Transmission steps 548 and 549 may occur alternately in reverse order or simultaneously. That is, the communication controller or processor of the primary device (eg, device 502 ) reads the NFC-sent information of the second device (eg, device 541 ) via NFC during the “tap to configure” 543 user action. The communication controller or processor of the device 541 also reads the information sent by the NFC of the first wireless communication device 502 via NFC during "tap to configure" 543 .

In this example, the devices 502, 541 then enter the START state of their own P2PSM (see Figure 9 below). Both device 502 and device 541 independently reach state S _ij (e.g. i=application, voice call in this example; j=short-range transfer, in this example in bluetooth). If there is no available channel for either of the two devices, the state machine in both devices will enter the END state. Error messages for reporting failures may be displayed on the user interface. If the two devices do not each infer a fault independently, the communication processor of the device 502 transmits the virtual link key Kv together with the Bluetooth addresses of the two devices to the selected short-range transceiver 108 (at Bluetooth in this example; see Figure 1) 574. At the same time, the communication processor of the device 541 may transmit the virtual link key Kv and the addresses of the two devices to its own Bluetooth connection part 575 . Thus, the virtual link key Kv is shared between the two devices 502,541.

Device 502 and device 541 determine the wireless communication channel according to their respective short-range transceivers (such as Bluetooth transceivers), and determine the available bandwidth according to their respective available Bluetooth bandwidth modules 164, and according to their respective application modules - such as Voice call module 133 - to determine the content type and availability of the application. That is, both device 502 and device 541 independently reach state machine START state 576, 577 again as a result of successfully finding a connection channel. NFC information may be updated, but not necessarily retransmitted (as will be discussed in more detail below). As a result, the first wireless communication device 502 establishes a short-range transmission 578 , such as a Bluetooth connection, with the second wireless communication device 541 .

Assuming that the first wireless communication device 502 shares a call with the second wireless communication device 541, the stream routing component of the audio processor of the device 502 may control audio mixing and audio splitting. It may combine audio input from a local connection component of device 541 and a cellular communication component of a remote device (not shown) before sending the combined audio to a speaker. It can pick up audio from the microphone and, if the device 502 is directly engaged in a cellular call, split the audio to the local connection component and the cellular communication component in use. Processor 120 of device 502 (see FIG. 1 ) may also accept requests from communications processor or controller 117 to mute, and/or increase/decrease the volume of different channels. If, during a call, the user of device 502 wants to temporarily remove a direct client from the session, the control module can discard data from/to that individual connection and transfer it later at the request of device 502. recover. Device 502 can track the entire network of connections to control device 541 (and any other devices not directly connected to it), or allow device 541 (or another device) to control mute, and/or raise/lower the volume of other devices.

For example, device 502 may use AT commands (including non-standard AT commands) to mute the microphone of directly connected device 541 . In order to control an indirectly connected device (not shown), the directly connected device 541 may be used as a repeater to send commands to the addressed indirectly connected device. Alternatively, a directly connected device may be instructed to implement call control commands it receives "downstream" to other devices.

In addition to routing the various audio streams to their appropriate paths and mixing, the audio processor 120 of the device 502 (see FIG. Volume for different paths, or any other type of control over the audio stream. The audio processor of device 502 is also capable of providing various forms of signal processing on the composite audio stream depending on which path it is operating on. For example, a composite uplink audio stream to a short-range wireless transceiver such as the Bluetooth transceiver 108 (see FIG. 1 ) short-range connectivity component may have echo cancellation, noise suppression, and any other digital filtering needed or desired. The audio sent from the audio processor of the device 541 to the codec speaker of the device 541 may also have some type of audio shaping performed on it so that the audio sounds clean to the user of the device 541 . Sidetone can also be added for comfort.

If both devices successfully configure their respective audio paths 579 and 580, voice calls 581 and 582 are shared between devices 502 and 541 via their respective short-range wireless transceivers. If either the device 502 or the device 541 fails to successfully configure 579 or 580 their audio path, an error message may be reported to the user interface. If the voice call sharing ends 583, 584 because the user hangs up or the connection is dropped for any reason, then the controller 117 (see FIG. 1 ) of the device 502 and device 541 can update the NFC information 585, 586 without having to use the released connection resources to reconnect. hair.

As mentioned above, the signal flow diagram described is an embodiment of voice call sharing. It is understood that any number of alternative applications may follow the same or similar process. For example, in another embodiment, images, music, files or videos may similarly be shared.

It is also possible to extend the single call sharing scenario to a second scenario where two mobile phones are on separate cellular network calls with different parties. Here, the two parties may wish to share the ongoing call with each other, effectively establishing a 4-way conference call with two separate cellular network calls via the local connection means. Such situations can occur between friends, family members, and work colleagues in different situations. Touching two mobile phones together is a natural and intuitive way for people to share one or more ongoing calls independently of each other.

Figure 6 depicts an example of call sharing between co-located devices. The devices are co-located so that they can "tap to configure" to establish their communication. Also in this example, they communicate via short-range wireless transmission such as Bluetooth or WiFi, which means that if they move out of range, they will lose their connection. The device 602 communicates with the remote party via the cellular network 646, thus, the device may share this remote party call with multiple co-located devices. In this example, device 602 is in a "point-to-multipoint" (P2M) configuration with co-located devices 641 and 642 . Also, devices 602 and 641 are in a "point-to-point" (P2P) configuration, as are devices 602 and 642 and devices 642 and 645 . Device 647 is a WiFi hub or router that may be used, for example, to communicate between device 642 and another device using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Due to the various connections shown, device 645 shares the same remote party telephone call as devices 602, 641, and 642.

Figure 7 depicts an arrangement in which three devices can share three calls and thus have 6-way communication. In this example, device 702 is in voice communication with a remotely located person over cellular network 746 . Device 741 is in voice communication with another remotely located participant over another cellular network 756 . The third device 742 is in voice communication with the last remotely located participant over the third cellular network 766 . The co-located devices 702, 741 and 742 can "tap to configure" to set up their communication and share in their three different voice calls to form a 6-way communication. Each co-located device 702, 741 and 742 has a point-to-point connection with the other two co-located devices, creating a point-to-multipoint configuration for each co-located device.

Figure 8 depicts a high-level example of a synchronization mechanism state machine according to an embodiment. The synchronization mechanism 118 state machine (see FIG. 1 ) runs independently on all participating devices. This high-level state machine describes the connection state. The low-level state machine (FIG. 9) will include the details of the specific connection, and due to the design of the low-level state machine, the selection and establishment of the short-range wireless communication link can independently reach the same conclusions for each device.

其中：∑是作为一组输入或者事件的输入字母表，

是输出字母表，

是有限非空状态集，s₀是初始状态，δ是状态转换函数，并且ω是输出函数。An example of a finite state machine definition is as follows: Synchronization mechanism 118 (see FIG. 1 ) is a six-tuple

where: ∑ is the input alphabet as a set of inputs or events,

is the output alphabet,

is the finite non-empty state set, _s0 is the initial state, δ is the state transition function, and ω is the output function.

Σ is the input alphabet as a set of inputs or events. On any input or event, the corresponding transition will be triggered. Σ includes four elements, Σ={TOUCH, RESET, A×Γ×B=0, A×Γ×B=1}, wherein, TOUCH and RESET are string inputs, A×Γ×B=0 and A×Γ ×B=1 is an expression input. TOUCH may indicate that the device running the synchronization mechanism 118 has "tapped to configure" another device to initiate content sharing, and RESET may indicate that the device was rebooted or software reset.

The expression A×Γ×B is defined as follows. Γ is a 3×m dimensional matrix and is the output of the state machine. A is a row vector, that is, a 1×3-dimensional matrix, A=[0 1 0]. B is a column vector, that is, an m×1-dimensional matrix, B=[1 1....1] ^T . B is the matrix transpose of [1 1...1] containing m ones. The notation A×Γ×B is understood as matrix multiplication. The expression A×Γ×B finds the value of the sum of the elements of the second row of the matrix Γ. A×Γ×B=0 may indicate that no current connection is established on this device, as explained below. A×Γ×B=1 may indicate that only one current connection is established on this device. A detailed definition of Γ is shown in the following paragraphs.

是输出字母表。当转换发生时，将产生对应的输出Γ。

是一组可能的矩阵Γ，即

其中Γ是下述形式的矩阵

is the output alphabet. When a transition occurs, a corresponding output Γ will be generated.

is a set of possible matrices Γ, namely

where Γ is a matrix of the form

$\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; \&Gamma;</span>}<span\; class="notranslate">\; =</span>\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; T</span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 1</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; <figure-callout\; id="2"\; label="T"\; filenames="HPA00001118598900091.png"\; state="\{\{state\}\}">T</figure-callout></span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 2</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; Tj</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; T\; m</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; L</span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 1</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; <figure-callout\; id="2"\; label="L"\; filenames="HPA00001118598900091.png"\; state="\{\{state\}\}">L</figure-callout></span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 2</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; Lj</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; L\; m</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; P</span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 1</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; <figure-callout\; id="2"\; label="P"\; filenames="HPA00001118598900091.png"\; state="\{\{state\}\}">P</figure-callout></span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 2</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; Pj</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; PM</span>}\end{array}\right]$

Γ has 3xm elements, where m is the number of transfers the mobile has. Tj indicates whether transfers of type j are fully occupied. Tj = 1 indicates that transfers of type j are fully occupied. Full occupancy could be because there are no more channels available or no bandwidth left. Tj = 0 indicates that transfers of type j are still available for other uses. Lj is the number of connections that exist for transfers of type j. For example, if a Bluetooth transmission is associated with i=1, then L1=4 indicates that there are four Bluetooth connections. Pj is the cumulative throughput used on transfers of type j, given as a percentage.

As an example, assume a device has two connections to two other devices via WiFi ad hoc mode, and the data rate may be 11 Mbps. WiFi standards (including IEEE standard 802.11g) only require ad-hoc mode communication to support a data rate of 11 Mbps. An example of Γ corresponding to this case is given below.

$\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 2</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 40</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\end{array}\right]$

In this example, a WiFi transmission is associated with j=2. L2=2 indicates that there are two WiFi connections. P2 = 40 indicates that 40% of the WiFi data rate is used and 60% of the bandwidth is left, which is 11 Mbps x 60% = 6.6 Mbps.

是有限非空状态集。其中，NON指示所述装置不具有共享行为，P2P指示所述装置与单个其他装置共享内容，并且P2M指示所述装置与多个其他装置共享内容。

is a finite set of non-empty states. Wherein, NON indicates that the device has no sharing behavior, P2P indicates that the device shares content with a single other device, and P2M indicates that the device shares content with multiple other devices.

s ₀ is the initial state. s ₀ =NON, ie the state machine starts in a state where the device has no sharing behavior. The device is in the initial state of the state machine upon power-up or hardware or software reset. The device may also re-enter state NON when the sharing action is completed, as shown in Table 1.

δ描述了在状态机处于特定状态，即

的特定元素的同时当状态机接收到输入，即∑的元素时，状态机的生成状态。在表1中给出了根据实施例的δ的完整规范。δ is the state transition function:

δ describes when the state machine is in a specific state, namely

At the same time when the state machine receives an input, that is, the element of Σ, the state machine generates the state. In Table 1 the complete specification of δ according to the embodiment is given.

的元素。have been omitted from Table 1 for those that cannot occur or do not result in conversion

Elements.

的特定元素的同时当状态机接收到输入，即∑的元素时，由状态机产生的输出。如上所述，Γ是3×m矩阵，其可能的值构成状态机的输出字母表。具有特定意义的Γ的值被表示为Γ0：ω is the output function. ω describes when the state machine is in a specific state, namely

The output produced by the state machine at the same time when the state machine receives the input, that is, the element of Σ, of a particular element. As mentioned above, Γ is a 3 × m matrix whose possible values form the output alphabet of the state machine. The value of Γ with a specific meaning is denoted as Γ0:

(具有全0的3×m维矩阵)

(3×m dimensional matrix with all 0s)

Γ0 means that none of the transmissions of the device are occupied, ie there is no connection with other devices and no bandwidth is consumed. Table 2 provides specifications for ω according to an embodiment.

Therefore, in certain cases, the synchronization mechanism state machine output Γ is reset to Γ0, and in other cases, the output of the advanced synchronization mechanism state machine remains at the same Γ.

Figure 8 includes transitions between states associated with input/output pairs. The input above the slash is the event condition for that transition. The output below the slash is the result of the conversion. The output will be stored in memory such as shared memory 138 (see FIG. 1 ) associated with the state machine. The output without change is not shown in FIG. 8 . In this example, there are two NFC compatible wireless communication devices, such as devices with memory output 202 and 241 (see FIG. 2 ), where T is the transmission, L is the number of links, and P is the information sent with the NFC 122, 124, and 126 associated bandwidth. The output Γ is stored in the shared memory 138 of each device 202, 241 to support content sharing between the two devices.

Initially, the device 202 (see FIG. 2) is in a NON state 810, which may indicate that the device does not have any sharing activity. When device 202 touches 889 another device (eg, device 241 ), it transitions to the P2P state 820 and initializes output Γ to Γ0. In the P2P state 820, the peer-to-peer state machine (P2PSM) will be invoked. See Figure 9 below. A P2PSM running in parallel on two devices can synchronize the sharing process of those two devices and set or clear a column and/or another column 811, 813 in the output matrix Γ corresponding to the send. The detailed operation of P2PSM is given below. In P2P state 820, synchronization mechanism 118 (see FIG. 1 ) returns to NON state 810 if there is no connection for this device (A×Γ×B=0) or the device is reset 891 by software or reboot.

In the P2P state 820, if the device contacts a third device, such as device 242 (see FIG. 2), it transitions 890 to the P2M state 830. In the P2M state 830, it will re-enter 893 the P2M state 830 every time it touches another device. At any time it enters or re-enters the P2M state described at 893, P2PSM will be invoked. In the P2M state 830, if there is only one connection (A×Γ×B=1) for this device, it will return to the P2P state 888. (A×Γ×B=1) indicates that only one nonzero element of the second row of matrix Γ is nonzero, and this element is equal to one. In the P2M state 830, if the device is reset or rebooted 892 by software, it will return to the NON state 810.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a P2PSM 900 running on a particular device, which can be customized for the media types and transmissions supported by the device. At least two parties are involved in content sharing. The device 202 (see FIG. 2) that owns the content may be referred to as a host or media server. The device 241 receiving content may be referred to as a slave, client, or media renderer. As previously described, P2PSM is activated whenever a device enters either the advanced P2P state 820 or the P2M state 830 shown in FIG. 8 .

In this example case, the two devices 202, 241 (see Fig. 2) are capable of Bluetooth and WiFi communication, and both support image, audio and video media content including voice calls. Using n as the number of application types supported by the mobile device (such as images, videos, mp3 music, voice calls, etc.), and m as the number of short-range wireless transmissions the mobile device has (such as Bluetooth, WiFi, UWB, etc.), in In this example, n(application)=3, and m(short-range wireless transmission)=2. Thus, an example P2PSM in each device 202, 241 has nxm+2 (or 3x2+2)=8 states. A start (S) status 994 in each P2PSM indicates that no content is being shared, or that a previous content sharing has successfully started. An end (E) state 995 indicates that the device cannot share media content over any available short-range wireless (Bluetooth or WiFi) transmission. If the state machine enters the END state 995, an error message may be propagated to the user interface. The other 6 states are described in Table 3 below.

In this example, Bluetooth transmissions have higher priority than WiFi transmissions because Bluetooth consumes less power, which is important for mobile device battery life. Therefore, Bluetooth is discussed first in this example (eg S _X1 =BT, S _X2 =WiFi).

For audio media sharing, the P2PSM synchronization process described above (branch S _2X , states S ₂₁ , S ₂₂ ) can be followed. For video content sharing, since video media sharing requires more bandwidth, a specific policy can be added to P2PSM (branch S _3X ). For example, in FIG. 9, the condition for transition from state _S31 to _S32 can be modified from FAILURE (failure)={Bluetooth interface is in use; Bluetooth connection cannot be established; Bluetooth connection is disconnected} to FAILURE=FAILURE∪ {stream frame rate < 15 frames/second (or another predetermined threshold)}. Transition conditions from state S ₃₂ to end state 995 may be similarly modified. Apart from this modification, the synchronization process can remain the same as above. By adding this specific strategy, a predetermined quality of video sharing can be guaranteed.

The means for initiating the exchange are defined by the Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol (NFCIP-1) specification. As mentioned above, the information sent by NFC may have configuration information and any current successful status information of P2M. Synchronization mechanism 118 (see FIG. 1 ) stores the exchanged state information in shared memory 138 .

During communication via short-range transceivers 106, 108 and/or 110 (see FIG. 1), both devices are in the same state of their respective advanced synchronization mechanism state machines (see FIG. 8). During transitions from one state to the next in the synchronization mechanism state machine, the shared memory of each device may be scanned. If a low-level peer-to-peer state machine (P2PSM) running concurrently in each device concludes that the corresponding transfer cannot be obtained or that the remaining bandwidth is not greater than the minimum bandwidth request to share the corresponding type of media, then a failure occurs and the transfer is avoided. An equivalent P2PSM state machine running on both devices and achieving the same result can guarantee shared synchronization between the two devices.

For point-to-multipoint (P2M) sharing, if two devices successfully start content sharing in P2P state 820 (see FIG. 8 ) and the first device touches a third device, the high-level state machine of the first device will transition to P2M state 830, and P2PSM will be invoked again for the first device, and run concurrently with the new device's P2PSM. For each device, the P2PSM will look at the synchronization mechanism 118 (see FIG. 1 ) and shared memory 138 to ensure that appropriate transfers are available.

The synchronization mechanism state machine (see FIG. 8 ) in each device 202, 241 and 242 (see FIG. 2 ) can be different between the P2P and P2M states, and the result of the P2PSM in each device depends on the device mode (e.g. image, audio, etc.) and differs between local connection technologies (e.g. Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.). As described herein, P2PSM input is extended to the NFC Forum frame format.

其中：∑是作为一组输入或者事件的输入字母表，

是输出字母表，

是有限非空状态集，s₀是初始状态，δ是状态转换函数，并且ω是输出函数。An example of a peer-to-peer state machine (P2PSM) definition is as follows: A P2PSM is a six-tuple

where: ∑ is the input alphabet as a set of inputs or events,

is the output alphabet,

is the finite non-empty state set, _s0 is the initial state, δ is the state transition function, and ω is the output function.

∑ is the input alphabet. It is a set of inputs or events. Specifically, Σ={1, 2, . . . , n, FAILURE, SUCCESS, j-DONE}, where 1, 2, . . . , n represent media content types. Inputs of FAILURE and SUCCESS indicate that content sharing has either failed or started successfully. j-DONE may indicate that sharing on transport j has either failed or completed successfully.

其具有与上面结合图8讨论的同步机制118(参见图1)中相同的定义。在被分配到同步机制118的输出的装置共享存储器138中存在公共的存储器空间。每个P2PSM可以工作在其装置中的同一存储器空间中。 is the output alphabet.

It has the same definition as in synchronization mechanism 118 (see FIG. 1 ) discussed above in connection with FIG. 8 . A common memory space exists in the device shared memory 138 allocated to the output of the synchronization mechanism 118 . Each P2PSM can work in the same memory space in its device.

其中，S是开始状态，并且E是结束状态。S_ij可以指示所述装置开始共享在传送j上的类型i的媒体。P2PSM具有n×m+2个状态 is a finite set of non-empty states.

where S is the start state and E is the end state. S _ij may instruct the device to start sharing media of type i on transport j. P2PSM has n×m+2 states

s ₀ is the initial state. s ₀ =S. In the initial state, no media is shared.

δ描述了在状态机处于特定状态，即

的特定元素的同时当状态机接收到输入，即∑的元素时，由状态机生成的状态。对于这个实施例，在表4中给出了δ的完整规范。δ is the state transition function:

δ describes when the state machine is in a specific state, namely

The state generated by the state machine when the state machine receives an input, that is, an element of Σ, at the same time as a particular element of . For this example, the full specification for δ is given in Table 4.

的元素。have been omitted from Table 4 for those that cannot occur or do not result in conversion

Elements.

ω描述了在P2PSM处于特定状态，即

的特定元素的同时当状态机接收到输入，即∑的元素时由状态机产生的输出。如上面结合图8所述，Γ是3×m矩阵，其可能的值构成P2PSM的输出字母表。Γ的特定值是ω is the output function.

ω describes being in a specific state in P2PSM, namely

The output produced by the state machine when the state machine receives the input, that is, the element of Σ, at the same time as the specific element of . As described above in connection with Fig. 8, Γ is a 3 × m matrix whose possible values constitute the output alphabet of the P2PSM. The specific value of Γ is

$\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; \&Gamma;</span>}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}<span\; class="notranslate">\; =</span>\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\end{array}\right]$

As mentioned above, Γ0 means that none of the device's transmissions is occupied, does not have any connections to other devices, and does not consume bandwidth. Define the 3×m matrix C1 as

$\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; Cl</span>}<span\; class="notranslate">\; =</span>\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 1</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; <figure-callout\; id="0"\; label="Ri"\; filenames="HPA00001118598900121.png,HPA00001118598900131.png"\; state="\{\{state\}\}">Ri</figure-callout></span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\end{array}\right]$

Define the corresponding 3×m matrix Cj as

$\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; C\; j</span>}<span\; class="notranslate">\; =</span>\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}\mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; ,</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 1</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\\ \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; Ri</span>}& <span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span><span\; class="notranslate">\; .</span>& \mathrm{<span\; class="notranslate">\; 0</span>}\end{array}\right]$

Table 5 provides specifications for ω in terms of Γ, C1 and Cj.

In C1, Ri is the minimum throughput request for sharing content of type i on transport T1. The expression Γ+Cj may indicate that once the sharing of content of type i is successfully started on transport T1, the number of connections on transport T1 will increase by 1 and the cumulative throughput on transport T1 will increase by Ri. In Cj, Ri is the minimum throughput request for sharing content of type i on transport Tj. The expression Γ+Cj may indicate that once the sharing of content of type i is successfully started on transport Tj, the number of connections on transport Tj will increase by 1 and the cumulative throughput on transport Tj will increase by Ri. The expression Γ-Cj may indicate that once sharing of content of type i fails or succeeds, the number of connections on transport Tj will decrease by 1, and the cumulative throughput on transport Tj will decrease Ri.

FIG. 10 is similar to FIG. 9 and illustrates an embodiment of a general example of a P2PSM 1000 running on a particular device that can customize the media types and transmissions supported by the device. Details of FIG. 10 can be understood with reference to Tables 4 and 5. Each transition between states is associated with an input/output pair, the input above the slash is the event condition for that transition. The output below the slash is the result of the conversion. The output will be stored in shared memory 138 (see FIG. 1 ) associated with synchronization mechanism 118 . The unchanged output is not shown in FIG. 10 .

In this generic P2PSM example, there is a start (S) state 1094, an end (E) state 1095, and n x m intermediate states, where, as noted above, m is the short-range wireless transmission (such as Bluetooth, WiFi, UWB, etc.), and n is the number of application types supported by the mobile device (such as images, videos, mp3 music, voice calls, file editing, etc.). State S _ij indicates that the device starts sharing media using application type i on transport j. The order of application types is arbitrary. The delivery order is listed by priority of each application type. Transmission j has higher priority than transmission j+1. For each given application type i, delivery m has the lowest priority.

In start state 1094, if two devices attempt to share media of type i, the state machine will transition to state S _i1 . If sharing fails at state S _i1 , the state machine will transition to the next state (eg S _i2 ) until state S _ij where media sharing of type i on transport j starts successfully. Before entering any state S _ij , Tj and Pj of Γ will be checked. If Tj is equal to 1, which indicates that no more resources are available on transfer j, then the transfer will be skipped. If Tj is equal to 0, Pj of Γ will be checked further. The transfer will also be skipped if the remaining bandwidth is not greater than the minimum bandwidth request for sharing media of type i.

After successfully starting sharing, the number of connections on transport j will increase by 1, and the accumulated throughput on transport j will increase Ri. This is done by using the expression Γ+Cj. P2PSM 1000 will return to start state 1094 on a SUCCESS condition. In start state 1094, if the sharing completes successfully or fails (j-DONE), then the number of connections on transport j will be decremented by 1, and the cumulative throughput on transport j will be reduced by Ri.

This is done using the expression Γ-Cj.

At any time P2PSM enters the start state 1094 because of SUCCESS (successfully started sharing on transfer j) or j-DONE (completed or failed to share on transfer j), it will look at the number of connections (Lj of Γ) and the corresponding For the cumulative throughput (Pj of Γ), Tj of Γ will be set to 1 if Lj reaches the maximum number of connections transport j can support or if Pj reaches 100% (no bandwidth left for other purposes). Otherwise, Tj of Γ will be reset to 0.

In state S _ij , if sharing fails, P2PSM 1000 will transition to state S _i(j+1) . Failure conditions may include conditions where the transfer is busy, the wireless connection has been disconnected, the device is out of range, and/or there are specific policies that prevent sharing in that state.

If sharing fails on all transfers, the P2PSM 1000 will transition to the end state 1095, which will automatically sink to the start state 1094. The reason for separating the end state 1095 from the start state 1094 is that some special procedures may need to be called in the end state 1095, such as an error handling procedure. Specific policies for failure situations have special requirements for certain types of content or for certain network topologies.

11 depicts an example of a generic packet configuration data format 1100 for the exchange of information for NFC transmissions between two wireless communication devices. According to the NFC Record Type Definition (RTD) specification, the information data type transmitted by NFC can be defined as an NFC Forum external type. The payload or type identifier 1197 is "companyname.com:cf". The type "companyname.com:cf" indicates that this is a company-specific configuration data type. Under the RTD specification, the payload length 1198 is an unsigned integer indicating the number of octets in the payload 1196 . The payload 1196 has n types of transfer configuration records, application configuration records, or status records. Each transfer configuration record has a transfer device identifier (T1-Tn), a length and a payload containing configuration details. In this example, Bluetooth payload 1196 is represented. Referring to FIG. 4, the Bluetooth configuration 450 (see FIG. 4) is denoted in FIG. 11 as "T1 configuration", and T1 indicates the output memory records (as described in connection with FIG. 8) as: T is transfer, L is link number, P is the bandwidth associated with the information 122, 124 and 126 (see Figure 1) sent by the NFC.

In the application configuration record 1130, the type of the application configuration record is "Ap". Application Record Length is an unsigned integer indicating the number of octets of application configuration information. The application configuration payload 1196 contains configuration details (per 426, see FIG. 4).

The type of status information record is "St". Status info_length is an unsigned integer indicating the number of octets of status information. The state information record 1109 may include: a current state, such as 21 indicating state S21 (see FIG. 9 ); a minimum bandwidth request Ri for sharing a particular type of content; an output memory of the synchronization mechanism 118 (see FIG. 1 ); and, other current states Related information. For music, the current state related information may be the time index of the music every 426. Using the time stamp of the music, for example, the renderer can skip to that part of the shared content that the master device is currently playing or wishes to point out to the user of the renderer device.

FIG. 12 illustrates the format of the output memory of the status information 1199 of FIG. 11 . As mentioned above, T is the transfer availability, L is the number of links, and P is the bandwidth. Referring to FIG. 4 , T1 is illustrated as Bluetooth availability 464 (see FIG. 4 ), L1 is illustrated as Bluetooth connection 465 , and P1 is illustrated as bandwidth 466 .

Fig. 13 is a specific example of Fig. 11, where T1 = Bluetooth and T2 = WiFi. Status information 1399 is in this example Bluetooth 463 and WiFi 467 connection availability. Type 1397 and Payload 1398 are the same as described above with reference to FIG. 11 . Payload 1396 contains BT configuration record 1321 , WiFi configuration record 1329 and current state information 1340 . It is understood that any variation in the information sent by NFC is within the scope of this discussion.

FIG. 14 is a table specifying the format of the combined "BT", "BT Configuration Length" and "BT Configuration" fields 1321 of FIG. 13 . A Bluetooth configuration record contains a record type "BT", the length in bytes of the configuration, and a configuration payload. The BT configuration payload may contain, for example, 6 parameters: a byte to indicate the type of configuration data (defining the use of BT authentication value parameters: discovery only, PIN or public key); 6 bytes for the Bluetooth device from the sending device Address 3-byte device class; 16-byte value used to create a PIN for subsequent Bluetooth connections; short name length field; and short name.

FIG. 15 is a table specifying the combined "Wla", "WiFi Configuration Length" and "WiFi Configuration" fields 1329 shown in FIG. 13 . A WiFi configuration record contains a record type "Wla", the length in bytes of the configuration, and the configuration payload. The WiFi configuration payload will contain two mandatory parameters according to: WLAN standard (such as IEEE standard 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g or combinations thereof) and Service Set Identifier (SSID). Several optional parameters may include: connection mode (infrastructure or Ad-hoc) and RF channel ID, encryption type and corresponding key, and peer's Ethernet MAC address.

FIG. 16 is a table specifying the format of the combined "St", "Status Information Length" and "Status Information" fields 1340 shown in FIG. 13 . The type of status information record is "St". Status info_length is an unsigned integer indicating the number of octets of status information. It is understood that any variation in the information sent by NFC is within the scope of this discussion.

Describes methods and apparatus for automatically coupling two or more mobile communication devices over a short-range communication link to share content such as calls, music, video, files, and games, wherein two Or more devices automatically determine the feasibility of sharing content, and negotiate to find an efficient way to do so. In this way, pairing between devices can be transparent to the user. Also, better options in delivery can be selected without extensive user input.

Thus, while the first user's application is active on the first wireless communication device, at least the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device can substantially automatically initiate communication to use the short-range communication link to communicate on the first wireless communication device. Content corresponding to an active application of the first wireless communication device is shared between the device and the second device. Each device includes a near field communication (NFC) device that (when in range of other NFC devices) can initiate communication between the wireless communication devices so that the devices can share content. Users of NFC-enabled devices may have little or minimal interaction other than one or more users bringing the device into range ("tap to configure") so that NFC can initiate pairing between the devices. Therefore, the need for complicated and tedious procedures for sharing content can be eliminated.

This disclosure is provided to explain in an enabling manner the best modes of building and using various embodiments in accordance with the invention. This disclosure is also provided to enhance understanding and appreciation of the principles of the invention and its advantages, but not to limit the invention in any way. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments of this application including all equivalents of those claims as issued.

It is also to be understood that the use of relational terms, such as first and second, top and bottom, and rotating and stationary, if any, are used merely to distinguish entities or actions from one another and do not necessarily require or imply a relationship between such entities or actions. any actual such relationship or order between them.

This disclosure is intended to explain how to make and use various embodiments in accordance with the described technology, not to limit the true, intended and fair scope and spirit thereof. The above descriptions are not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise forms disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The one or more embodiments were chosen and described in order to provide the best explanation of the principles of the technology and its practical application, and to enable others skilled in the art to use the technology in each embodiment, with various modifications suitable for the particular use under consideration. All such modifications and changes are within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims and all their equivalents when interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they are fairly, legally and equitably entitled. Requirements may be amended during the pendency of this patent application.

Claims (18)

1. mobile communications device comprises:

Short-range wireless transceiver is configured to use wireless transmission to send data, and described wireless transmission has the wireless transmission configuration by the configuration information indication, and also has available bandwidth;

Processor is configured to move at least one Application Software Program, with the content of visit by the indication of application type information;

Controller is coupled to described short-range wireless transceiver and described processor; And

Near field communication means, be coupled to described controller, and be configured to send described configuration information, described available bandwidth and described application type information, and receive another configuration information, Another application type information and another available bandwidth from another communicator.

2. device according to claim 1, wherein, described near field communication means is a rfid device.

3. device according to claim 1 also comprises:

Transceiver is configured to communicate by letter on cellular network.

4. device according to claim 1, wherein, described configuration information comprises the information of selecting from the group of being made up of class, link key and the device short name of bluetooth configuration type, bluetooth device address, device.

5. device according to claim 1, wherein, described configuration information comprises the information of selecting from the group of being made up of WLAN type, SSID, connection mode, radio-frequency channel ID, encryption type and encryption key.

6. device according to claim 1, wherein, described controller is configured to communicate by letter when described near field communication means receives when handling another configuration information to start via described short-range wireless transceiver, and described another communicator of described another configuration information indication has compatible short-range wireless transceiver.

7. device according to claim 1, wherein, described application type information comprises the maximum of an application identifier, the Application Software Program of the limit priority that described maximum indication is moving on described processor.

8. device according to claim 7, wherein, described application identifier is selected from the group of being made up of calling sharing application designator, image viewer application identifier, audio player application designator, file viewer application designator and video player application designator.

9. device according to claim 1, wherein, described application type information comprises the maximum of a content type designator of selecting from the group of being made up of voice content designator, picture material designator, audio content designator, video content designator and file content designator.

10. method of between first radio communication device and second radio communication device, sharing content, described first radio communication device is configured to carry out first Application Software Program that is used to visit the content with content type, and described method comprises:

Use first near-field communication to send available bandwidth information and the effective application message that first short-distance wireless transmits configuration information, correspondence from described first radio communication device;

Use second near-field communication to receive available bandwidth information and the application availability information that second short-distance wireless transmits configuration information, correspondence from described second radio communication device;

Between described first radio communication device and described second radio communication device, set up short-range wireless communication link based on the available bandwidth information of described first short-distance wireless transmission configuration information and correspondence and the available bandwidth information of described second short-distance wireless transmission configuration information and correspondence.

11. method according to claim 10, wherein, described transmission comprises:

The concatenation ability that transmission is selected from the group of being made up of bluetooth capability and WiFi ability.

12. method according to claim 10 also comprises:

Use described first near-field communication to send content-type information.

13. method according to claim 12, wherein, described content type is selected from the group of being made up of voice content type, picture material type, audio content type, video content types and file content types.

14. method according to claim 10 also comprises:

Use described short-range wireless communication link that described content is sent to described second radio communication device from described first radio communication device.

15. method according to claim 14 also comprises:

Carry out audio call sharing application software program; And

On described short-range wireless communication link, voice content is sent to described second radio communication device from described first radio communication device.

16. method according to claim 10 also comprises:

Can visit the execution that starts second Application Software Program on described second radio communication device of described content;

Use described short-range wireless communication link that described content is sent to described second radio communication device from described first radio communication device, to visit by described second Application Software Program.

17. method according to claim 16 also comprises:

Realize state machine in described first radio communication device, described state machine comprises:

Initial condition NON, in described initial condition NON, described first radio communication device is connected with the short-distance wireless that do not have of described second radio communication device;

Point-to-point connection status P2P, in described point-to-point connection status P2P, described first radio communication device has a short-distance wireless with described second radio communication device and is connected;

Realize peering state machine (P2PSM) in described first radio communication device, described peering state machine comprises:

In described initial condition START, there is or does not need the short range links of success in initial condition START, and described short range links is configured to share content between described first radio communication device and described second radio communication device;

Final state END in described final state END, can not set up successful short range links, and described short range links is configured to share content between described first radio communication device and described second radio communication device; And

A plurality of state S _Ij, at described a plurality of state S _IjIn, set up the short range links of transmission type j, the short range links of described transmission type j is configured to use content type i to share content between described first radio communication device and described second radio communication device;

Wherein, the short-distance wireless that exchanges via the near-field communication between described first radio communication device and described second radio communication device of described state machine tracks transmits configuration information, corresponding available bandwidth information and content-type information.

18. method according to claim 16 also comprises:

Realize that point connects to multiple spot (P2M), wherein, described first radio communication device has and is connected with the point-to-point short-distance wireless of described second radio communication device and is connected with at least one other point-to-point short-distance wireless of another radio communication device.

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